Coalition for a Safer California, a Sacramento group with close ties to Perata, [has now] reported spending $55,000 on a new round of TV ads on behalf of Perata, along with $26,000 on a new mailer, touting Perata’s candidacy. That means the group has now spent $222,000 trying to get the ex-senator elected, pushing total spending for Perata over the $1 million mark.

OAKLAND -- After spending enough cash to help Don Perata bust through Oakland's voluntary spending cap in the race for Oakland mayor, the Sacramento-based Coalition for a Safer California appears to be amassing a new war chest for a last blast before the Nov. 2 election.

And guess who's helping out? Lew Wolff, owner of the Oakland A's, recently contributed $10,000 and his partner, John Fisher, contributed $15,000, according to campaign finance documents filed with the Secretary of State's Office late last week.

Wolff wants to move his team to San Jose, so maybe the contributions aren't surprising given recent published comments in the Tribune that Perata thinks the move is a done deal.

But Wolff said Wednesday that Perata's stance on the A's and the team's future home had nothing to do with his decision to try to help him win the election.

Corporate giants PG&E, Comcast, and HealthNet have all donated thousands of dollars in last-minute funds to a group called the Oakland Jobs PAC, helping the political action committee fund a $33,000 brochure mailer in support of the Oakland mayoral candidacy of Don Perata.

PG&E donated $10,000 to the Oakland Jobs PAC in the first weeks of October, while Comcast and HealthNet gave $5,000 apiece during the same period.

Meanwhile, PG&E, Comcast, and HealthNet were not the only donors to give big money this October to the Oakland Jobs PAC in support of Perata's mayoral campaign.

The Northern California Carpenters Regional Council Small Contributor Committee gave another $10,000 and Architectural Dimension of Walnut Creek and Rosendin Electric of San Jose, two major players in the building industry, gave another $5,000 apiece.

And the Nossman attorney firm of Los Angeles, which bills itself as a leader in the area of "eminent domain and other valuation disputes, representing public agencies, landowners, and business owners," gave $2,000 to the Oakland Jobs PAC.

The Oakland Jobs PAC is headed by Oakland-based consultant and legislative advocate Gregory McConnell, who is also executive director of the Oakland Safe Streets Committee.

In 2007, then-Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente appointed McConnell to Oakland’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Housing Affordability as a representative of Oakland’s homebuilding industry.

The East Bay Express reported that the Oakland Jobs PAC spent close to $50,000 in 2008 in support of former Oakland School Board member Kerry Hamill's campaign for the Oakland City Council At-Large seat against the eventual winner of that race, Rebecca Kaplan. ("Cops Measure Backers Supporting Hamill, Possibly Illegally" East Bay Express May 30, 2008) Perata supported Hamill against Kaplan in that race.

Oakland A's owners Lew Wolff and John Fisher, who desparately want to move their team to San Jose, are trying to influence the outcome of the Oakland mayor’s race, pumping $25,000 into a political committee that is backing ex-state Senator Don Perata. The move is unusual because Oakland sports team owners don't typically attempt to sway city elections and because Wolff is known for being frugal with his money. The large donations also came after recent statements made by Perata that stopping the A’s move to the South Bay will not be a priority if he becomes mayor.

...

In an interview, Wolff denied that Perata's stance on the A's had anything to do with his $10,000 donation, saying he's supporting the ex-senator because he thinks he's the best mayoral candidate. Fisher donated $15,000. "I've known him for years," Wolff said of Perata, "and I respect him." Wolff also said he hasn't been paying attention to what Perata has been saying on the campaign trail.

But an attempt by an Oakland sports team owner to affect the outcome of a mayor's race may be unprecedented in recent decades. “I’ve been in Oakland since 1964, and I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Newhouse said in an interview after being told of what Wolff had done. Newhouse also said that Perata’s disinterest in keeping the A’s in Oakland “makes more sense” in light of Wolff’s attempt to get the ex-senator elected.

Indeed, it seems unlikely that Wolff and Fisher would support a candidate who would try to stop their San Jose plans.

The Coalition For A Safer California—a Sacramento-based political action committee largely funded by Don Perata's prison guards union employers—reports close to $157,000 in the bank available to pour into the Oakland mayoral race in the next week, according to financial records available on the California Secretary of State website.

That will almost certainly mean massive campaign mailings can be expected to Oakland voters in the next few days either supporting Perata or tearing down his opponents.

The Safer California coalition was the funder of the controversial Oakland "police mailer" last summer which criticized two of Perata's major opponents in the mayoral race—Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan—during negotiations with the Oakland police union over closing the city of Oakland's budget gap.

The major contributor to the Safer California coalition is the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the prison guards union which gave $75,000 to the coalition in the last two weeks. In all, the prison guards union has given $225,000 to the Safer California coalition this year.

Perata has received at least $469,000 as a political consultant from the prison guards union since he left the State Senate in late 2008.

Including the money coming from the prison guards union, more than 80% of the Safer California coalition's contributions this month have come directly from Oakland residents or individuals or companies with Oakland interests or Oakland connections.

Campaigns attempting to elect Don Perata mayor of Oakland have spent a record $965,000, newly filed campaign finance reports show. Perata’s own mayoral campaign had spent at least $669,000 through October 16, and two other committees backing his candidacy spent at least $269,000 trying to put him in the mayor’s office. The totals easily shatter previous Oakland mayoral campaign spending records.

The two other committees spending large sums on Perata’s behalf are a Sacramento group with close ties to him, Coalition for a Safer California, and an Oakland committee, Oakland Jobs PAC, that also has links to the ex-senator. Coalition for a Safer California has spent $141,000 in support of Perata, while Oakland Jobs PAC reported spending $155,000 so far.

Both groups eclipsed Oakland’s $95,000 threshold for spending by independent committees. And Perata has now more than doubled the city’s spending cap of $379,000. Perata found a loophole in Oakland law that allows him to exceed the cap once other groups have done so — even if they're spending money on his behalf. The city's cap rule was designed to help candidates who are attacked by outside groups who spend lots of money — but the loophole also allows candidates like Perata to benefit from groups overspending in support of him.

...

Finally, it should be noted that mayoral candidate Marcie Hodge has yet to file a campaign finance report as required by law during the election. Hodge has spent significant sums on billboards, mailers, radio spots, and now TV ads. Several black leaders in Oakland believe that Perata supporters are bankrolling her campaign in an effort to siphon votes from Kaplan and Quan. Hodge has denied getting help from the ex-senator and said she loaned herself a large donation, but it’s unclear where she got the money, because she reported having no job, no income, and no investments on her official financial disclosures in August.

Greg Harland Reverses Field, Now Says Perata Is His Second Choice For Mayor Of Oakland

From The Anybody But Perata Website
October 22, 2010

Oakland mayoral candidate Greg Harland has suddenly changed his position on Don Perata, telling voters at a Thursday night candidates forum at Holy Names College that Perata is now his second choice for mayor of Oakland.

Harland said he felt Perata had the experience and was "well-qualified" to become Oakland's next mayor.

With all Oakland voters getting second and third choices for mayor this year in the city's new "ranked choice" voting format, candidates at the forum were asked who their second and third choices would be on the ballot.

Harland's position on Perata is a marked change from his position only a month ago. At the September 14 Oakland Climate Action Coalition mayoral debate at the Oakland Museum, Harland said that Perata was "not the candidate for Oakland," adding that Perata's front-runner status in the campaign was only due to "name recognition," which Harland implied was a poor way to pick a city leader. "If Charles Manson came to Oakland and ran for mayor, he'd beat us all out," Harland said.

Earlier in the campaign, Harland was one of the few mayoral candidates to offer specific criticism of Perata.

That changed abruptly two weeks ago, however, during the debate at the Pacific Renaissance Plaza, when Harland stopped criticizing Perata and instead turned his attacks on another mayoral candidate, Jean Quan. Observers noted at the time that it seemed odd that Harland would begin his criticism of Quan at a Chinese-American event, since it seemed more likely to cost him votes in that venue than to gain votes.

Since the Chinatown debate, Harland has criticized Quan in several debates—sometimes adding a criticism of mayoral candidate Rebecca Kaplan—but has stopped criticizing Perata. At Thursday night's College of Holy Names forum, Harland spent close to half of his two minute closing statement in a criticism of Quan and Kaplan, a time that other candidates used to promote their own candidacies.

Harland has offered no explanation as to his abrupt change of opinion of Perata, or his change of tactics in now repeatedly attacking Perata's closest competitors in the mayor's race.

Perata Pulls A Double Wednesday No-Show; Skips Two Candidate Forums In One Evening

Anybody But Perata Website
October 20, 2010

Don Perata—whose campaign is based in part on a pledge to "show up" if he is elected mayor of Oakland—failed to show up for again for the two latest mayoral campaign candidate forums, one sponsored by the Alameda County Democratic Lawyers Club at Everett & Jones Barbecue at Jack London Square, the other by Alameda County Community Food Bank in East Oakland.

Most of the other nine candidates in the Oakland mayoral race attended both Wednesday night forums.

Perata has now failed now to attend six of the last seven Oakland mayoral forums, including the October 6 forum at Allen Temple Baptist Church, the October 11 progressive debate at Humanist Hall, the October 13 housing organizations debate at Youth UpRising, and the October 16 Standing Together for Accountable Neighborhood Development debate in North Oakland.

How The San Francisco Chronicle Continues To Alter The Facts And Stack The Deck For Their Favorite Candidate, Don Perata

Anybody But Perata Website
October 20, 2010

As we have said several times before, the San Francisco Chronicle has been manipulating its news coverage of the Oakland mayoral race in order to promote its favorite candidate, Don Perata.

Here is one more example.

In an October 18 article on the budget plans of the four leading Oakland mayoral candidates ("4 Top Oakland Mayoral Candidates Split Over Budget"), Chronicle reporter Matthai Kuruvila critizes the budget figures given out by Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan.

"[Quan] believes police make up too big a portion of the [City of Oakland] budget," Kuruvila writes, "though she frequently overstates police and fire costs by saying they account for 74 percent of the general fund, when the actual figure is 65 percent."

While Kuruvila includes criticisms of each of the candidates' positions by the other candidates in the race, Quan is the only candidate whose figures or positions he chooses to directly challenge himself.

The problem with Kuruvila's challenge of Quan's figures?

Last July, when the City Council was in the middle of the failed negotiations with the Oakland police union that led to the layoff of 80 police officers, Kuruvila wrote the following: "Oakland has been slashing nearly every part of its budget except public safety. Police and fire costs now account for about 75 percent of the general fund budget, compared to 61 percent just five years ago." ("Oakland Scrambles To Avoid Police Layoffs.")

In other words, Chronicle reporter Kuruvila was using virtually the same police/fire percentage of the Oakland budget last July that he is now criticizing and "correcting" Jean Quan for using.

It's possible that this was simply sloppy reporting and editing, a newspaper that's not even bothering to check back on the facts that it previously reported.

Or, is it a case of the Chronicle trying to subtly tear down the qualifications of the candidate who is closest to Perata in the polls, Jean Quan, and therefore the person Perata probably currently considers his most serious threat in the mayor's race?

You decide which explanation is correct.

Given the fact that this is not the first time the Chronicle has slanted its news stories to help Perata, we've already made up our minds which.

Ex-senator Don Perata has changed his positions in recent days on at least two issues of controversy during the campaign — the format of mayoral debates and his call for eliminating the Oakland Public Ethics Commission. For months, Perata said he would not participate in debates unless all ten candidates for mayor were invited. In fact, at least one debate organizer, the Sierra Club, changed its debate format to include all candidates after Perata refused to attend. But then late last week, Perata changed his tune and criticized the ten-person format for promoting superficiality.

...

But then late last week, Perata did a complete about-face, telling the Chronicle that having ten candidates at a debate — a format that he demanded — was depriving voters of substantive discussions. "We are promoting bumper-sticker speaking," the ex-senator told the newspaper, apparently with a straight face. Unfortunately, the paper failed to call him out on his flip-flop.

Throughout the campaign, Perata also has said he would help balance Oakland’s budget by eliminating the city’s Public Ethics Commission. But his plan prompted much derision because the Ethics Commission operates on a tiny budget that would barely put a dent in Oakland’s deficit and because the commission enforces the city’s ethics laws and Perata has had numerous questionable ethical dealings over the years.

...

So what did Perata do after his bright idea was exposed? He flip-flopped again. Last week, during a debate hosted by the Rockridge Community Council and League of Women Voters, he answered “no” when asked whether he was in favor of abolishing the Ethics Commission.

Former State Senate President Don Perata skipped another candidate debate this week, this one a North Oakland neighborhood Saturday morning forum sponsored by STAND organization (Standing Together for Responsible Neighborhoods). No Perata campaign workers attended the STAND debate, and no Perata literature was available on the tables outside.

Unlike the Youth UpRising debate, the STAND debate had not been listed on Perata's website as an upcoming event.

Meanwhile, in a San Francisco Chronicle article published the same morning as the STAND mayoral debate, Perata appeared to be attempting to excuse his absence at recent debates, criticizing the debate formats.

According to the Chronicle article:

"Perata said the ranked-choice voting system has deprived voters of substantive discussions. With 10 candidates being invited to mayoral forums, there's usually only about a minute to explain a view on a complex issue, he said.

The first is that the 10 candidate field for this year's Oakland mayoral race have nothing to do with ranked choice voting. 11 candidates ran for Oakland mayor in 1998, a race that Jerry Brown eventually won for his first of two terms.

The second is that it was at Perata's insistence that all of this year's Oakland mayoral debates include all 10 candidates. When some organizations tried to limit some of the debates to a smaller number made up of what they defined as the "top" candidates early in the campaign in order to increase the time each candidate had to answer questions, Perata refused to participate unless all 10 candidates were invited. Perata's refusal forced the organizations to open up the debates to all 10 candidates.

Meanwhile, Perata has failed now to attend four of the last five Oakland mayoral forums, including the October 6 forum at Allen Temple Baptist Church, the October 11 progressive debate at Humanist Hall, and the October 13 housing organizations debate at Youth UpRising.

Former State Senate President Don Perata, the presumed front-runner in the Oakland mayoral race, was on the defensive today. The reason? Two East Bay newspapers not only endorsed an opponent, but they viciously slammed him.

Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata has reversed his controversial position on Oakland's Public Ethics Commission, answering "no" when asked at a Thursday night candidates debate if he was in favor of abolishing the commission.

The answer was an abrupt turnaround from Perata's previous psoition on the Ethics Commission. Since as far back as April, Perata has been calling for the abolishment of the Ethics Commission as a way to balance Oakland's budget.

The question—which came during a Rockridge Community Planning Council/League of Women Voters mayoral debate at College Preparatory School in Rockridge—was part of the so-called "lightning round" of the candidates forum when candidates can only answer "yes" or "no," without elaboration.

Perata's previous position on abolishing the Ethics Commission had caused considerable controversy because Perata has been accused of numerous public ethics violations over the years, and Oakland's commission is charged with investigating ethics violation by Oakland public officials.

Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata is apparently too embarrassed about his job as a highly paid consultant for the California prison guard’s union to list it on the November ballot. Indeed, the ex-state senator has taken the unusual step of listing no job title at all. As a result, his ballot designation just says, “Don Perata.”

A candidate not listing his job title directly under his name on the ballot is rare. Perata is the only candidate — statewide or in Oakland — not to have done so on the local ballot. His main competitors, Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, list their jobs as Oakland city councilmembers, and Joe Tuman lists his as “professor/political analyst.”

“I think it shows what he really ‘believes’ about Oakland voters,” Kaplan said. “It shows that he ‘believes’ they won’t vote for him if they know he works for the prison lobby.”

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association hired Perata in early 2009 as a “political consultant” just after he was termed out of the state senate. The union is Perata’s only publicly known employer and it has paid him at least $469,000, records show. The high pay also has raised numerous questions about what Perata is doing currently for the union — or whether it’s merely about payback. During his time in the senate, Perata helped protect the union from state budget cuts. The union also financed two hit-piece mailers against Quan and Kaplan earlier this year.

Don Perata—the candidate who promises he will show up as Oakland mayor if he is elected—failed to show up for another Oakland mayoral debate—this one a housing-oriented forum held on Wednesday night at Youth UpRising in East Oakland.

The debate moderator announced that Perata "did send his apologies" for missing the Youth UpRising debate, saying Perata had said only that "it was a last-minute thing," with no other explanation.

Instead of attending, Perata submitted written answers to the six questions debate organizers had prepared for the mayoral candidates.

The Youth UpRising housing forum had been listed as one of Perata's upcoming events on his campaign website as late as Monday, October 11, but was dropped from the Perata website sometime between then and Wednesday afternoon.

Perata has now failed to attend three of the last four Oakland mayoral forums, including the October 6 forum at Allen Temple Baptist Church and the October 11 progressive debate at Humanist Hall.

Amidst charges by Perata's opponents that he is trying to buy Oakland's mayoral election, Perata's most recent pullback from the mayoral debates comes while his eight-page, full-color brochures continue to hit Oakland mailboxes, and Perata television ads are inundating several television stations, including ESPN, the USA Network, and MSNBC.

Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata skipped another mayoral debate Monday night, this one a forum sponsored by a coalition of progressive organizations at Humanist Hall.

Since forcing a number of debate organizers to change their selection criteria earlier in the campaign after Perata refused to participate in any debates that did not include all ten mayoral candidates, Perata has skipped several debates. Perata also refused to participate in mayoral debates in the early stages of the campaign until candidate filing had closed.

Perata did participate in a ten candidate mayoral debate sponsored by the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce held earlier on Monday evening.

However, after appearing in a number of his own neighborhood cleanup campaign events during the summer, Perata appears to have pulled away from organizing personal appearances. Aside from mayoral debates, Perata's campaign website events page currently only lists an apperance at an Urban Releaf groundbreaking and media event and an LGBT Perata campaign fundraiser as upcoming campaign events.

Instead of personal appearances, Perata appears to be relying heavily upon a deluge of television advertisements to promote his mayoral campaign.

Monday's progressive mayoral debate was co-sponsored by the Alameda County Green Party, the Alameda County Peace & Freedom Party, the Bay Area Solidarity Democratic Socialists of America - East Bay Local, the Fellowship of Humanity Media Alliance, Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library, the Northern California Committees of Correspondence for Democracy & Socialism, the Oakland ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), Oakland CAN (Community Action Network), the Oakland Tenant Union, and Upsurge!

The last time Don Perata was in a close election battle, he broke the law to win. It was 1998, and he was facing a tough fight against progressive Assemblywoman Dion Aroner. To beat her, he funneled an illegal $90,000 loan into his campaign just weeks before the election. Now, twelve years later, Perata is in another tough election fight, and interviews and public records suggest that he’s broken several campaign finance laws in his effort to win the Oakland mayor’s race.

On June 30, Perata loaned his mayoral campaign $50,000 from his consulting company, Perata Consulting LLC, records show. Under campaign finance law, loans are considered contributions, and the individual contribution limit from a corporation is $700 in Oakland. Although it’s legal for candidates to give or loan unlimited amounts of their own money to their campaigns, it’s not lawful for corporations to loan or donate money in excess of established contribution limits — even if the candidate controls the corporation. “If the candidate wants to donate as much of his own money as he wants to his campaign, he can — but not from his company,” explained Bob Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles and former general counsel to the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).

Perata was fined following his 1998 campaign against Aroner for violating election laws involving loans. Just weeks before that election, he wrote himself a $90,000 check from his dying father’s estate and then transferred that money as a loan to his campaign account. The last-minute infusion of cash helped Perata barely defeat Aroner. The FPPC eventually ruled that Perata had broken the law and fined him $4,000. But the ruling and fine came well after Perata had been elected, and so it didn’t change the outcome of the race.

Two of Perata’s main opponents in the 2010 mayor’s race, Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, contend that he’s doing the same thing now. “I think he figures he can just break the law and get away with it,” said Quan, who has filed several complaints against the ex-senator with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission — complaints that likely won’t be adjudicated until well after the election. “And I think he’s betting that people won’t care about it.

In his campaign for mayor, Don Perata accuses the Oakland City Council of financial mismanagement of Oakland's public money. In a section called "Fixing The Budget" on the "Strategy For Oakland" section of his campaign website, he writes:

"Council members have facilitated a horror-show at City Hall. Rainy-day funds were squandered during boom times; contracts were negotiated with careless short-sightedness. Council members have protected their personal pet projects while gutting Oakland’s police department."

The problem? What Perata forgets to tell you is that he was one of the people trying to push short-sighted consultant contracts through the City Council when Oakland's budget times weren't so bad.

In 1995, shortly after he left the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, Perata tried to get the Oakland City Council to approve $25,000 of a $50,000 contract for Perata to write an economic development study. The Economic Development Committee of the Council killed the proposal in part because Oakland already had city staff who should have been doing the job themselves.

In other words, Don Perata had no problem with the City of Oakland squandering funds on careless, short-sighted contracts, so long as he was the one getting the contract.

A March 8, 1995 Oakland Tribune article gave the details:

Council Drops Proposed Contract With Don Perata

By Craig Staats
Oakland Tribune
March 8, 1995

OAKLAND--In an awkawrd about-face, city officials abandoned a proposed $50,000 contract with former Alameda County Supervisor Don Perata to consult on ways to boost Oakland's struggling economy.

Skeptical members of the City Council's economic development committee killed the idea, saying the city ought to do the work itself and not hire another consultant.

Don Perata skipped another Oakland mayoral candidate forum, this one held on Wednesday evening at Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland. No explanation was given by forum organizers for Perata's absence.

All of the other nine candidates for Oakland mayor attended Wednesday's forum, which was held at one of the most politically-influential African-American churches in the city.

OAKLAND -- The Coalition for a Safer California spent $137,000 in the past three months to help Don Perata in his quest to become Oakland's next mayor, and the former state senator responded by spending more than $593,000 -- a record -- with a month still to go.

The coalition filed its quarterly campaign finance report online Tuesday evening with California's secretary of state, putting to rest the question whether the political committee controlled by Perata's longtime associate Paul Kinney did, as promised in a Sept. 16 letter sent to the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, blow through the spending limit on independent expenditures in the Oakland mayor's race.

According to Oakland's elections code, once a political action committee independently spends more than the $95,000 ceiling set for the mayor's race, the candidates who previously agreed to abide by voluntary spending limits of $379,000 are no longer held to that limit.

Exactly $95,500 was spent between July 6 and Sept. 16 by the coalition, according to the first pre-election filing period that covers July 1 through Sept. 30.

The Sept. 16 date is important because Perata said he waited until that day to launch his own television ads that put him over the voluntary $379,000 spending cap set for candidates in the mayor's race.

But Perata's closest rivals in the race, City Council members Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, have for three weeks accused Perata of working with the committee to exceed the cap. They questioned how he could know in advance of the Oct. 5 campaign finance filing deadline that the committee had actually spent money in the race unless he had insider knowledge.

Don Perata has spent more than half a million on his campaign to become Oakland Mayor – far exceeding his rivals and the voluntary limits for what can be spent in the race.

Perata has spent a total of $594,000 on the race and raised $663,000 in his bid to beat out a crowded field, according to filings made today. The voluntary spending limit for the Oakland mayor’s race is $379,000.

Oakland City Council Member Jean Quan – who has been polling a close second to Perata and attacking Perata for evading campaign finance rules – at first appeared to have exceeded the limit this morning. But the Quan campaign said it had made a computational error, putting the total she’s raised at $320,000.

City Council member Rebecca Kaplan, who’s polling third, has raised $138,000. Joe Tuman, a former television analyst and a dark horse who's been rising in the polls, raised $64,000 in his first-time bid for public office

Quan, Kaplan and others have targeted Perata for his fundraising, saying he's unfairly evading the spending limits. Perata has said that he is following the rules, which state that the cap on spending is automatically lifted if an independent expenditure committee spends more than $90,000 on behalf of a candidate. A committee funded by police and prison guard unions called the Coalition for a Safer California blew past that limit last month.

The Coalition, an independent expenditure committee supporting Perata, revealed yesterday that it spent $136,000 supporting Perata's bid for mayor, according to its own finance disclosures.

The group has paid for television spots as well as mailers. Paul Kinney, a longtime Perata associate, is being paid to run the committee.

The coalition was originally being funded by the law enforcement groups, including the prison guards' union, which employs Perata as a political consultant. The latest disclosures show large donations from longtime Perata supporters in the East Bay. As an independent expenditure committee, there are no limits on contributions.

Jon Reynolds of Reynolds & Brown, which is building a big housing development near the Oakland Estuary, kicked in $10,000. James Falaschi, a real estate developer who's done projects in Jack London Square, plunked down $25,000. T. Gary Rogers, a former Dreyer's Ice Cream executive, threw in $10,000, adding to the $20,000 he'd previously put into the coalition.

Another political action committee, called Oakland Jobs, is also dumping money into the effort to get Perata elected. The group, funded by businesses and real estate developers, reported that it has spent a total of $114,000 on surveys, consultants and mailers.

Don Perata has spent at least $594,000 in his attempt to become the next mayor of Oakland, thereby demolishing the city’s expenditure cap of $379,000, according to campaign finance reports filed today with the city clerk’s office. It was the first time that a mayoral candidate has ever gone over Oakland’s spending limit. Perata contends that he can exceed the cap because a Sacramento group with close ties to him has gone over the cap as well. That group, Coalition for a Safer California, which is run by a longtime Perata friend and is funded by the ex-senator’s best donors, reported last night that it had spent at least $137,000 trying to get him elected.

However, two of Perata’s main competitors, Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, noted that it appears from the campaign filings that Perata may have gone over the city’s spending cap before Coalition for a Safer California did. If so, then Perata broke Oakland law. The filings show that Coalition for a Safer California reported that it spent more than the city’s $95,000 cap for independent committees on September 16. But Perata’s TV ads, which reportedly put him over the cap, too, started appearing right around the same time.

A Sacramento group with close ties to Don Perata has spent at least $137,000 trying to get the ex-state senator elected mayor of Oakland, according to new filings with the California Secretary of State’s Office. The reported expenditures by the group, Coalition for a Safer California, which is run by Perata’s longtime friend, Paul Kinney, and is funded by some of the ex-senator’s best donors, appears to be the most that any outside group has ever spent in an Oakland mayoral election.

Through September 30, Coalition for a Safer California reported spending $55,500 for TV ads that it says have run or will run on local cable TV and KTVU-Channel 2, and $41,600 for a mailer on Perata’s behalf that presumably will be sent to Oakland voters. The group also reported paying Kinney $40,000 for “consulting” work in its effort to help Perata win the Oakland mayor’s race, and $10,000 for fund-raising. The group reported paying consultant Stephanie Shakofsky for the fund-raising. Shakofsky is the former girlfriend of Oakland City Attorney John Russo, and two knowledgeable sources say she also was romantically involved with Perata for a time as well.

The reported spending by the group also appears to lift the spending caps in the mayor’s race, thereby allowing Perata to spend as much money as he wants in the election. The move is a boon to Perata because he was closing in on the city’s $379,000 cap for mayoral campaigns several months ago. Perata told reporters last week the he had gone over the cap as a result of the Coalition for a Safer California’s spending.

The group also reported raising $80,000 from July through September. It said it received contributions from longtime Perata donors: James Falaschi ($25,000), co-owner of most of the buildings in Jack London Square; Jon Reynolds ($10,000), co-developer of the massive Oak-to-Ninth housing development; T. Gary Rogers ($10,000), former CEO of Dreyer’s Ice Cream; AB&I Foundry ($7,500); and the billboard company, CBS Outdoor ($7,500).

Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata received another $60,000 from the California prison guard’s union in the past three months, raising his total pay from the union to at least $469,000 since early 2009. In newly filed campaign finance reports, the prison guard’s union said it paid Perata $20,000 per month from July through September for “campaign consulting,” even though the union reported that it mounted no political campaigns during that time.

Earlier this year, the union was the primary funder of two hit-piece mailers that attacked two of Perata’s main opponents in the mayor’s race — Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan. In other words, Perata is being paid as a “campaign consultant” to a union whose only political campaign this year was an attack on his opponents in the mayor’s race.

Council member Jean Quan, right, asks city attorney Mark Morodomi, left, to give a legal opinion on spending rules outlined in the Oakland Campaign Reform Act.

By Evan Wagstaff
Oakland North
October 1, 2010

Oakland City Council members Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, candidates in the mayoral race, were unable Thursday to prompt amendments to the city’s campaign finance laws before the November 2 election. The proposed changes targeted fellow candidate Don Perata, whose campaign has already exceeded the $379,000 spending cap.

The issue was first brought to light when the Coalition for a Safer California, an independent expenditure committee, announced that it had spent $95,000 on Perata’s behalf. Under current city election law, this donation triggered the lifting of the spending cap for all mayoral candidates.

The revisions Quan and Kaplan were seeking Thursday, as they brought the issue to the council’s rules and legislation committee, would have included a requirement that candidates sign documents pledging in advance—under penalty of perjury—not to coordinate with committees to raise the spending cap, as Quan suspects Perata has.

But the rules committee, of which Quan is a member and Kaplan is not, voted Thursday to conduct an investigation through the city’s public ethics commission, rather than sending the issue directly to the city council. Kaplan and Quan’s complaint will be investigated, but could take “weeks, if not months” before it’s formally addressed by the commission, ethics commission executive director Daniel Purnell said.

OAKLAND -- The hopes of two mayoral candidates to get the City Council to tighten rules on campaign finance spending before the Nov. 2 election ended Thursday when the council's rules committee refused their request.

Candidates Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, both of them council members, raised the matter after the Sacramento-based Coalition for a Safer California declared in a letter dated Sept. 16 that it had spent more than $95,000 -- the threshold for independent expenditure committees -- on behalf of a candidate in the Oakland mayor's race. The committee is not required to provide a detailed accounting until Tuesday.

According to the Oakland Campaign Reform Act, once an independent expenditure committee exceeds the threshold, mayoral candidates are free to spend more than the voluntary spending limit of $379,000. But candidates must decide whether they want to risk exceeding the cap without first seeing the spending details next week.

Quan, who serves on the rules committee, and Kaplan, who does not, said that mayoral candidate Don Perata, the former state Senate leader, worked with the coalition to break the spending cap on his behalf, a charge Perata has denied.

A new legal opinion from the Oakland City Attorney’s Office will effectively allow ex-state Senator Don Perata to exceed the city’s spending cap in the mayor’s race and not have to worry about potential consequences until well after the election. The opinion, coupled with the city’s cumbersome process for investigating campaign finance violations, also likely means that voters won’t know for sure whether Perata has broken any laws until after they’ve cast their ballots.

Rebecca Kaplan, one of Perata’s main competitors in the mayor’s race, said the City Attorney’s opinion effectively means that Oakland “has no campaign finance law.” The opinion was prompted by questions Kaplan raised about spending by Perata and a Sacramento-group with close ties to him. That group, Coalition for a Safer California, recently declared that it had exceeded Oakland’s spending threshold for independent committees, thereby lifting all expenditure caps in the mayor’s race. And Perata appears to now have exceeded the city’s spending limit of $379,000 for mayoral candidates with a wave of recent cable TV ads.

Kaplan noted that Perata and the Coalition for a Safer California have effectively turned Oakland’s campaign finance law on its head. The law was written in the 1990s to allow a candidate to exceed the expenditure cap if some group spends large sums attacking that candidate. But a loophole in the law also lets Perata benefit from a group that supports him — Coalition for a Safer California — by allowing him to overspend if it overspends, too. Coalition for a Safer California is run by Perata’s longtime friend, Paul Kinney, and is primarily funded by Perata’s primary employer, the state prison guard’s union, thereby also raising questions as to whether Perata has been coordinating with the group in violation of state and local laws. Kaplan called Perata and the group’s actions a “new low” in Oakland politics. She noted that Perata had promised early on to run an ethical campaign.

When Marcie Hodge ran for Oakland City Council against Desley Brooks four years ago, it was no secret who was behind her campaign. Brooks and Don Perata had clashed often over the years, and the then-state senator's close ally, Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, made it clear at the time that he wanted Brooks out of office. So they found a candidate to take on Brooks — political neophyte Marcie Hodge.

...

[Now Hodge is running for mayor of Oakland, and] over the past two weeks, Hodge's mayoral campaign appears to be suddenly swimming in cash. Her face adorns giant billboards in East, West, and North Oakland. She's bought ads on Bay Area radio stations. And last week, she blanketed Oakland with a glossy, four-page mailer — an expense that typically ranges from $30,000 to $40,000.

So where did she get all that cash and why is she spending so much of it when she won't take the time to prepare for a debate? In an interview, Hodge said she loaned her campaign money and has received donations from some of the same contributors she counted on in 2006. But it could be a long time before her assertions can be verified. According to Alameda County Registrar of Voters and Oakland City Clerk's Office records, she has a history of not reporting her contributions until months after an election is over — in violation of state and local election laws. In both 2006 and 2008, she failed to file campaign statements until five months after the statutory deadline.

...

[Desley] Brooks and several other Oakland black leaders believe Perata, the king of big-money politics in Oakland, is once again helping his political protégé. "How would somebody who got her butt whupped by Desley Brooks and was censured by her Peralta colleagues suddenly have the money for billboards and radio ads?" asked Geoffrey Pete of the Oakland Black Caucus.

Hodge denied receiving Perata's assistance, but Brooks, Pete, and others think the former senator is trying to use Hodge to siphon black votes from two of his main competitors — Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan. After all, Hodge is a black woman, and Quan and Kaplan have picked up some key African-American endorsements. Pete has endorsed Kaplan, as has the influential Black Women Organized for Political Action. And black Assemblyman Sandré Swanson is the co-chair of Quan's campaign.

Ex-state Senator Don Perata has been spreading false information about the Oakland police union’s pension deal with the city. On the campaign trail and in the official ballot argument against Measure X, the $50 million parcel tax measure, Perata has asserted that there is no deal for cops to pay 9 percent of their pensions if the measure passes. But in an interview today, Oakland police union President Dom Arotzarena said Perata is wrong. “There is a deal,” Arotzarena said. “I sat through the negotiations myself. There’s a signed deal. I even had a vote from the entire membership.”

...

Perata ... meanwhile, also has put out conflicting information about taxes and the city’s budget. Throughout the first-half of 2010, he argued strongly for the council to put a measure on the ballot, raising the city’s sales tax by one-half percent. But the council rejected the idea because it would have given Oakland the highest sales tax rate in the region and because sales taxes are regressive. They disproportionately harm low-income residents who spend a much higher percentage of their incomes on items subject to sales taxes, like clothes and household goods.

Yet in the official ballot argument against Measure X, Perata contends that voters should turn down the measure in part because it’s a parcel tax. He said such a tax “places an unfair burden” on low-income residents and seniors. So parcel taxes are “unfair,” but sales taxes aren’t? ...[Y]ou decide.

Police, platitudes and malapropisms dominated last night's Oakland mayor's debate featuring nine candidates, who barely fit on the stage at the Kaiser Center.

Don Perata made news by actually showing up at the League of Women Voters' debate. But the former state senator, who's leading in the polls and has studiously avoided other debates, showed little fight and was almost listless as he avoided saying much of anything of substance.

With less than two months to go before Oakland voters pick a new mayor, nearly all the attention - positive and negative - is focusing on Don Perata.

The former state Senate leader has a slight lead in polls and is trouncing rivals in fundraising. But he's also receiving the brunt of criticisms from opponents, who can win the election even if they don't receive a plurality of first-place votes, thanks to the city's adoption of ranked-choice voting for the Nov. 2 election.

Perata and the other nine mayoral hopefuls will be making a rare joint appearance tonight at a candidates forum. At least five such forums have been held so far, but Perata has attended only one.

It's an absence that has prompted some to compare him to the city's current mayor, Ron Dellums.

"It's starting to feel like an absentee mayor, and all Oaklanders know what that is like," said Greg Harland, a businessman running for mayor.

Note: The headline in the Oakland Tribune story below reads that the spending cap has been lifted in the Oakland mayoral race. The headline is wrong. In fact, as the story indicates, as of the date the story was written, one of the triggering mechanisms to lift the spending cap has possibly occurred. However, as of the date of this story, Oakland election officials had not yet declared the spending cap lifted.

OAKLAND -- If it wasn't clear before, the gloves -- and caps on campaign spending -- are off in the race for Oakland mayor.

That's if one wants to rely on the contents of a letter.

The Coalition for a Safer California, an independent expenditure committee run by candidate Don Perata's longtime associate Paul Kinney, claims in a letter sent to the Oakland Public Ethics Commission that it has spent at least $95,000 on the mayor's race. According to Oakland's elections code, once an independent committee spends more than the ceiling for the mayor's race, in this case $95,000, the candidates who previously agreed to abide by voluntary spending limits of $379,000 are no longer held to that limit.

But is the letter proof enough to take that risk? The coalition has until Oct. 5 to file pre-election statements with the Oakland City Clerk's office. That filing will list the independent expenditures made in local races.

If it turns out that the coalition didn't spend the funds, but a candidate went ahead and blew through the voluntary spending limit, Oakland elections code states that the candidate could be subject to fines and penalties.

Ex-State Senator Don Perata launched TV ads over the weekend in his quest to become Oakland’s next mayor, raising questions as to whether he has violated the city’s campaign spending limit. As reported by numerous media outlets, Perata was close to reaching Oakland’s $379,000 expenditure limit for mayoral campaigns before his ads went on cable television. One of Perata’s ads ran during the San Francisco 49ers game Monday night on ESPN.

Perata may have decided to launch the TV ad campaign and exceed the city’s cap because a Sacramento political group, Coalition for a Safer California, declared late last week that it had gone over Oakland’s spending threshold for independent committees — a move that could lift all spending caps in the mayor’s race. Perata's campaign manager Larry Tramutola did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment for this story.

At the same time, it’s unclear whether the declaration by the Sacramento group is sufficient to lift the caps or if the Oakland Public Ethics Commission or the Oakland City Attorney’s Office must make that determination. Both city agencies said earlier today that they are looking into the matter. It’s a novel issue, because no group or candidate has ever exceeded the city’s spending limits before. Councilwoman Jean Quan, who is also running for mayor, plans to call on the Ethics Commission tonight to examine expenditures made by Coalition for a Safer California to determine whether the group really has exceeded Oakland’s cap.

Coalition for a Safer California, a Sacramento political group with close ties to ex-state Senator Don Perata, is declaring that it has exceeded Oakland’s $95,000 spending cap for independent committees, thereby possibly lifting the cap for all other candidates and committees in the campaign. The move could be pivotal in the mayor’s race because of Perata’s prodigious fund-raising abilities and because he is close to reaching the city’s $379,000 spending limit for mayoral candidates even though the election is still six weeks away.

Both Councilwoman Jean Quan, who is also running for mayor, and Dan Purnell, executive director of Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission, said today that they have seen notification from the Perata-linked group, saying that it had exceeded the $95,000 threshold. But Quan said in a statement that she plans to call on the Ethics Commission tonight to not lift the spending caps in the mayor's race until it has determined whether the Coalition for a Safer California actually had spent that much money.

As the Express reported last week, Paul Kinney, head of the Perata-linked group, said that it had spent at least $70,000 on fund-raising and his salary in connection with the Oakland mayor’s race. However, according to the documents filed by the group with the Secretary of State’s Office, the group had not reported making any independent expenditures in the race through June 30. The group launched two hit-piece mailers earlier this year against Quan and Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who is also running for mayor, but Kinney said last week that his group does not consider those ads to be related to the mayoral campaign. As a result, it’s unclear whether the group actually has exceeded Oakland’s spending limit.

The Oakland City Clerk’s Office has set the spending cap in the Oakland mayor’s race at $95,000 for so-called “independent” committees. The clerk’s office notified candidates yesterday about the spending limit. The cap became news earlier this week when the Express reported that a Sacramento group with close ties to ex-state Senator Don Perata revealed that it had exceeded the spending limit, thereby allowing all candidates, including Perata, to spend as much as they wanted on the mayor’s race.

The Perata-linked group, Coalition for a Safer California, which has launched attacks ads against his competitors, Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, later had to rescind its declaration when it discovered that the cap was not $70,000 as it had thought. The cap was established in 1998 at $70,000, but has grown to $95,000 because of inflation, the clerk’s office said.

However, the Perata-linked group has indicated that it nonetheless plans to exceed the $95,000 cap before the election, thereby allowing the ex-senator to spend as much as he wants to win the mayor's office. In a follow-up letter to the Oakland City Attorney’s Office and the city’s Public Ethics Commission, Paul Kinney of the Coalition for a Safer California described his earlier declaration about exceeding the cap as “premature,” implying that the group plans to go over it at a later date. Kinney also said in the letter that he will alert both city agencies “should we cross the line” — a reference to the $95,000 limit.

Friends of the ex-senator have found a legal loophole that could allow him to greatly exceed the city's campaign spending cap.

By Robert Gammon
East Bay Express
September 15, 2010

Don Perata and his political allies in Sacramento may have found a legal loophole that could let the former state senator spend as much money as he wants on the Oakland mayoral election. Normally, Oakland mayoral candidates are prohibited by law from violating the city's expenditure cap, which currently is about $379,000. However, actions taken by a shadowy political group in Sacramento with close ties to Perata could eventually allow him to spend far more than $379,000 without worry of breaking the law.

Last weekend, the Perata-linked group, Coalition for a Safer California sent a letter to the Oakland City Attorney's Office and the Oakland Public Ethics Commission stating that it had exceeded the city's cap on expenditures for so-called "independent expenditure committees." The letter also claimed that because the coalition had overspent, Perata and every other candidate were now free to overspend too without fear of penalty. Typically, mayoral candidates don't violate locally imposed campaign spending caps because doing so generates bad press and it's expensive. Under Oakland law, candidates can face fines triple the amount they overspend. So if Perata were to exceed the cap by $50,000, he could face a $150,000 fine.

In interviews, Dan Purnell, executive director of Oakland's Public Ethics Commission, and Mark Morodomi, a lead attorney for the Oakland City Attorney's Office, said that the Coalition for a Safer California was correct. If the group spent more than the city's cap for independent committees, about $90,000, then Oakland's campaign finance law allows all other committees, along with the individual campaigns themselves, to spend as much money as they want. Purnell called the loophole a "crude" measure that was meant to help candidates who have been unfairly attacked by soft-money groups. But the loophole also helps a candidate like Perata, who benefits when a committee that supports him also overspends on attack ads against his competitors.

A Sacramento campaign committee is poised to break Oakland's mayoral campaign finance limits, an action that critics say would benefit only one candidate in this race: Don Perata.

Mayoral candidates had agreed to a spending limit of $379,000 total in exchange for raising the per-person contribution from $100 to $700. However, under city rules, if an independent expenditure committee spends roughly $90,000 in the mayoral race, the limits are lifted and candidates can spend as much as they want.

This week, the city attorney's office and the city public ethics commission received a letter from an independent expenditure committee called the Coalition for a Safer California, which stated that it intended to spend enough in the Oakland mayoral race to trigger the elimination of expenditure limits.

The committee receives much of its funding from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has paid Perata $369,000 as a consultant over the past two years. The former state Senate president has handily beat his rivals in fundraising thus far.

As of June 30, however, he had spent 85 percent of the $379,000 limit. He has already raised $416,000 and is raising more.

Six mayoral candidates, led by City Council member Jean Quan, raised questions at a City Hall press conference Tuesday afternoon about whether groups supporting Don Perata’s mayoral bid opened a loophole in Oakland’s spending limits, which would release Perata from a pledge to only spend $379,000 in his campaign. The Perata camp fired back, saying it’s following all campaign laws and that Quan’s campaign spending merits closer scrutiny.

“Don Perata is lining up big outside interests to do outside spending on his behalf,” Quan said, citing a Sept. 13 East Bay Express article. Quan said Perata’s relationship with the state’s prison guards union, which has spent money on mailings criticizing Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, was giving him an unfair advantage in the election.

“It’s a clear violation, a spit-in-your-face ignoring of the campaign limits that the citizens of Oakland have voted for,” Quan said.

Five of the ten candidates for Oakland mayor stood on the steps of Oakland City Hall Tuesday afternoon to reaffirm their commitment to campaign expenditure limits while slamming fellow candidate Don Perata, accusing him of attempting to raise the spending ceiling agreed upon by all candidates.

Candidates Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Arnie Fields, Larry Lionel “LL” Young, Jr., Don Macleay, plus a surrogate representing Rebecca Kaplan, came together to express their intent to continue to limit their campaign expenditures to the $379,000 per candidate outlined in the Oakland Campaign Reform Act (OCRA). The stated purpose of the act is to ensure equal opportunity in the Oakland elective process, to reduce the sway of large contributors, and to allow candidates to spend less time fundraising and more time campaigning. Candidate Joe Tuman, though not present, also reaffirmed his support for the spending limits via a press release, writing he would “like to see all candidates abide by these rules.”

In a race with 10 competing candidates, early spending can make a sizable difference at the ballot box. Quan alleged that Perata has made at least three attempts to legally justify surpassing the spending ceiling, and said she believes he will eventually do so. “We have no doubt [Perata] will find a way to violate the campaign limits,” Quan said. “Don Perata, the one person who could actually raise $1 million, gets to spend as much as he wants to.”

Perata first tried to raise the expenditure cap in June, said Sue Piper, policy analyst for Jean Quan. Due to the implementation of ranked choice voting, Perata argued, a primary campaign and a general election had been consolidated and thus deserved an elevated spending limit. His second attempt, Piper said, came in the form of letters to the Alameda County registrar of voters, voicing his opinion that the city of Oakland wasn’t ready for ranked choice voting and should delay its introduction. According to the Quan campaign, his third and most recent attempt is to utilize a legal loophole in the finance law that would allow him to spend more than $379,000.

OAKLAND -- Don Perata's opponents gathered outside City Hall on Tuesday and alleged that the former state Senate leader is using his well-heeled friends to buy the Oakland mayoral race ahead of the November election.

Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Arnie Fields, Larry Lionel Young, Jr., Don Macleay and a representative for Rebecca Kaplan said that Perata's close ties to a Sacramento-based independent expenditure committee prove that their opponent is attempting to circumvent the voluntary campaign spending limits set for the November election.

The group made the accusations even though Perata's campaign has not exceeded the voluntary expenditure limit of $379,000 set for the November election.

However, a loophole in Oakland's Campaign Reform Act states that the candidate spending limits may be lifted if an independent expenditure committee exceeds the spending thresholds set for the race.

And in this case, that is exactly what has happened. The Coalition for a Safer California, an independent expenditure committee that has close ties to Perata, distributed a letter Friday stating that it had exceeded the $70,000 threshold set for committee spending for the mayor's race. The coalition has received a $100,000 donation from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has paid the former state senator $308,894 as a political consultant, as well as several other donations from other close Perata associates.

Don Perata and his political allies in Sacramento may have found a legal loophole that will let the former state senator spend as much money as he wants on the Oakland mayoral election. Normally, Oakland mayoral candidates are prohibited by law from violating the city’s expenditure cap on elections, which currently is about $379,000. However, actions taken by a shadowy political group in Sacramento with close ties to Perata may allow him to spend far more than $379,000 without worry of breaking the law.

In recent days, the group, Coalition for a Safer California, which strongly supports Perata, is run by his friends, and is funded by his employer, sent letters to mayoral campaigns in Oakland, saying it has exceeded the city’s cap on expenditures for so-called “independent expenditure committees.” That cap is currently about $90,000, according to Dan Purnell, executive director of Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission. Councilwoman Jean Quan, who is one of Perata’s main competitors, received one of the letters. It was sent by Paul Kinney, who runs Coalition for a Safer California and is a longtime Sacramento political consultant with close ties to the ex-senator.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Express, states that because Kinney’s group allegedly went over the city’s cap on expenditures for independent committees, then Perata and every other mayoral campaign can now spend more than the city’s $379,000 cap without fear of penalty. Typically, mayoral candidates don’t violate the cap because doing so generates bad press, and it’s expensive. Under city law, candidates can face fines that are triple the amount they overspend. So if Perata were to spend $50,000 more than the cap, he would face a $150,000 fine.

But the ex-senator may now be able to overspend by hundreds of thousands of dollars without fear of fines. The issue is key for him, because as the Express reported last month, Perata had already spent more than $320,000 on his mayoral campaign by June 30, leaving him with virtually no money for the final stages of the race. Now, he may have no such worries. Indeed, his lavish early spending on expensive consultants indicates that he may have been counting on his friends and the legal loophole all along.

Ex-state Senator Don Perata apparently does not believe that his close association with the California prison guards’ union will harm his chances with progressive Oakland voters in this year’s mayoral race. According to newly filed campaign finance reports, the powerful prison guards' union paid Perata another $60,000 from April through June of this year. Perata has now pocketed nearly $409,000 from the prison guards' union since being termed out of the Senate in January 2009.

Oakland retailers have shown signs of rebounding from the Great Recession in the past several months, particularly small, independent businesses. The local restaurant industry also is flourishing. About 25 new eateries have opened in the city in the past eighteen months. But a proposal being pushed by Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata could threaten the turnaround. It would raise the city's sales tax by one-half a percentage point, giving Oakland the highest sales tax rate in Northern California at 10.25 percent.

Perata has proposed the tax hike as way to help balance the city's budget and avoid laying off more police officers. The Oakland City Council voted last week to lay off eighty cops after the police union refused to contribute to its pension plan like other city employee unions. A sales tax increase is projected to raise up to $16 million a year, and the ex-state senator is proposing it be put before voters as a mail-in ballot measure in September or as a regular measure in November.

But many retailers and city business leaders are already lining up in opposition to raising sales taxes. They say it could wreck the fragile economic turnaround, and pull the plug on small businesses that have not yet begun to recover. "It's really, really distressing," said Amy Thomas, owner of Pendragon Books on College Avenue. "It's so ill-conceived. To not understand what kind of problems this will create is unconscionable"

OAKLAND — A group of organizations and individuals with long-standing ties to mayoral candidate and former state Sen. Don Perata are among those behind mailers attacking four City Council members after the council voted Thursday to lay off 80 police officers, records show.

The pieces hit mailboxes late last week and Monday after the council's vote on a 2010-11 budget plan and in the middle of negotiations between the city and the Oakland Police Officers Association aimed at securing concessions from the union and possibly saving jobs.

One mailer shows a police officer standing in an unemployment line above the words, "Is this the future of Oakland?" Residents also received a letter from Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, comparing Oakland's police staffing level unfavorably to San Francisco's. Both were paid for by the Sacramento-based Coalition for a Safer California.

The group singled out council members Jean Quan, Pat Kernighan, Rebecca Kaplan and Desley Brooks — even though Kaplan and Brooks voted against the budget. City Council President Jane Brunner and Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, who voted for and played a key role in crafting the proposal, were not mentioned in either piece, however.

[Anybody But Perata website note: This is an excerpt from a San Francisco Chronicle article on the proposed police layoffs in Oakland. We have printed the portions that deal with the mailers sent out to Oakland voters by groups with ties to Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata. The entire article is available on the San Francisco Chronicle website here.]

Oakland sent out pink slips to 80 of its 776 police officers on Monday as negotiations between the police union and the city languished for another day.

...

[A]lthough [Oakland Police Officers Association President Dom] Arotzarena and [Oakland City Council President Jane] Brunner tried to put a positive spin on the talks, police groups have been filling residents' mailboxes with mailers criticizing three City Council members, particularly mayoral candidate Jean Quan.

...

The mailers sent out in recent days seek to take the issue to voters.

Each of the mailers was sent by police groups, which have strong ties to former state senator and mayoral candidate Don Perata, though he denied any connection to either mailer.

One of the mailers is a letter from the San Francisco Police Officers Association. It criticizes Councilwomen Quan, Rebecca Kaplan and Pat Kernighan. Kaplan is expected to announce her candidacy for mayor Wednesday.

The letter, from union President Gary Delagnes, states those council members are "behind the effort to weaken Oakland's public safety program."

"Gary Delagnes believed that those three council members were an impediment to the officers' problems," said Officer Kevin Martin, vice president of the San Francisco police union. Martin said the letter was based on conversations with Arotzarena, which Arotzarena denied.

"Gary Delagnes did not call me and get that information from me," Arotzarena said.

Quan noted that San Francisco police officers pay 7.5 percent into their pensions, and, next year, new hires will pay 9 percent. In Oakland, she said, "the current police pensions are not sustainable."

The other mailer was sent by Coalition for a Safer California, a coalition of public safety groups. It is run by a Sacramento law firm, Olson, Hagel & Fishburn. Lance Olson, a managing partner in charge of the coalition, did not return calls.

That mailer singled out the same three council members - Quan, Kaplan and Kernighan - and accused them of wanting to cut police units that specialize in gangs, sexual assault, child abuse, and auto and residential burglary.

In fact, no one on the council has publicly suggested cuts to specific units. The decision has been left to Police Chief Anthony Batts. The letter also claimed the council was considering 197 layoffs tonight, but there is no council meeting tonight and only 80 layoffs were approved Thursday.

Brunner was dismayed by the letters.

"We're working really hard to balance the budget," she said. "I don't know if these leaflets are that helpful."

Oakland Councilwomen Rebecca Kaplan and Jean Quan believe that the city’s well-paid police officers should agree to compensation cuts to help balance the city’s $31 million budget deficit, but ex-state Senator Don Perata indicated in a recent interview that cops have already sacrificed too much. The sharp disagreement among the three leading mayoral candidates offers insight into how they would deal with budget crises in the future, and it reveals their political allegiances.

Earlier in the week, Quan voted to begin the process of laying off 200 Oakland police officers if cops refuse to start paying 9 percent to their own retirement plans. Currently, police pay nothing toward their pensions, while firefighters contribute 13 percent and other city workers pay part of their retirement plans as well. A majority of the council wants that to change. And they note that because police and fire take up 75 percent of the city’s general fund budget, there are few other places to cut.

Kaplan also pointed out that Oakland police, whose salaries start at $71,000 annually, make more than their counterparts in other cities. The Tribune noted that starting pay for NYPD is about $44,000. “We shouldn't have to pay double what New York City has to pay,” Kaplan said, according to the Trib. “We shouldn't have the highest-paid workers paying a lower percentage into their pension than the lowest-paid workers.”

Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata continues to collect lucrative fees as a “campaign consultant” from the state’s powerful prison guard’s union, even though the union has mounted no political campaigns. The ex-state senator pocketed $48,893 in the past few months, according to the latest campaign finance filings, raising the total he has banked from the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association’s Issues Committee to nearly $90,000 in the first five months of this year.

Perata went on the prison guard’s union payroll immediately after being termed out from the state senate in late 2008. In 2009, the union paid him $260,000 as a “campaign consultant.” But it’s unclear exactly what Perata’s company, Perata Consulting, which includes his son, Nick Perata, has done to earn nearly $350,000 in the past seventeen months because the union has launched no political campaigns since it hired him.

Oakland Mayoral candidate Don Perata has donated at least $75,000 this year from his cancer-research committee to East Bay nonprofits that have nothing to do with the cause for curing cancer — but are run by his former campaign treasurer and close confidante, Jill Cabeceiras. Sources also say that Cabeceiras is Perata’s former girlfriend.

Campaign finance records show that Perata’s committee, Hope 2010, which he established to support a statewide cancer-research initiative on the November ballot, donated $25,000 to the Oakland Parents Literacy Project and $50,000 to Avalon Village, a small Alameda organization that tries to keep seniors in their homes. Cabeceiras is the development director of the Oakland Parents Literacy Project and is the executive director of Avalon Village, according to the groups’ latest tax returns. The two groups paid Cabeceiras $86,167 in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Perata, himself, is the president of Avalon’s board of directors and sits on the Oakland Parents Literacy Project’s board. Perata mayoral campaign manager Larry Tramutola did not return a phone call for this story.

Former State Senator Don Perata called this week for the abolishing of Oakland's Citizens' Police Review Board and Oakland Ethics Commission as a way to help balance Oakland's ailing city budget.

Perata, who is an announced candidate for mayor of Oakland in next November's election, made the call during a campaign appearance this week at the Youth Uprising organization in East Oakland.

Saying that "we're going to have to do without some things" in order to balance Oakland's city budget but that "we need to have the stones to do it," Perata said that Oakland citizens "don't need a police review board watching over the police" because the city already has several judges monitoring police activity in the city, including United States District Judge Thelton Henderson. "You're not going to get anything past him," Perata added.

By Kelly Rayburn
Originally published in the Oakland Tribune
April 1, 2010

OAKLAND — Police union officials said they won't reimburse the city for costs associated with a Nov. 5 community meet-and-greet with police Chief Anthony Batts that took a political turn when the union publicly endorsed former state Sen. Don Perata for mayor.

Batts already had left the Oakland Police Officers Association's headquarters, where the meeting was held, when Oakland police union President Sgt. Dom Arotzarena announced the union's support for Perata, drawing applause from some, angering others and prompting Oakland resident Pamela Drake, a supporter of Councilmember Jean Quan's bid for mayor, to file a complaint with Oakland's public ethics commission.

The commission subsequently requested that the union reimburse the city $709 for the staff time, fliers, postcards and postage that went toward promoting the event.

Mercury Insurance is spending millions of dollars to pass Prop 17 this June.

The controversial proposition would allow insurance companies to charge higher rates to drivers who allowed their insurance to lapse anytime during the previous five years. This surcharge is currently illegal in California because it pads the profits of insurance companies on the backs of people without steady incomes, people who loose their jobs and temporarily stop driving and environmentally-minded people who attempt a car-free life-style.

By Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross
The San Francisco Chronicle
February 21, 2010

In the year since he's left office, former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has received $260,000 in consulting fees from the state prison guards union, making him the latest ex-officeholder to hop on the prison gravy train.

The first $20,000 check to Perata - who, like a lot of Democratic leaders, was close to the California Correctional Peace Officers Association in his days in Sacramento - came a month after he left office.

Checks of between $20,000 and $40,000 continued like clockwork throughout the year. Union spokesman Lance Corcoran said he didn't know exactly what Perata did for the money, but said that "in the past, we have relied on his counsel with respect to legislative issues."

At first glance, Don Perata's sponsorship of a statewide measure that would raise funds for cancer research seems perfectly understandable. After all, the former leader of the California Senate has been battling prostate cancer since May of last year. But in recent months, there have been growing indications that Perata's involvement in the proposed ballot initiative involves a motive beyond finding a cure for cancer — namely, to help him become the next mayor of Oakland. In fact, there is evidence that Perata may be attempting to use the cancer-research initiative to skirt state and local campaign finance laws in ways that could give him an unfair advantage over his mayoral opponents.

Last week, for example, Perata used funds from a political committee that is supposed to support the cancer-research initiative on a glossy mailer that he sent to an unknown number of Oakland residents. Although it's unclear whether he sent the mailer to residents of other cities, it's addressed, "Dear Fellow Oakland Voter," and there is no denying that it serves to help enhance his image as the mayoral campaign season gets underway. The mailer also was sent from his official mayoral campaign headquarters in Oakland.

By Kelly Rayburn and Josh Richman
Originally published in the Oakland Tribune
January 11, 2010

A ballot-measure committee headed by former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata paid $25,000 to Oakland City Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente in August to do outreach to labor and ethnic groups and fundraising for a proposed cigarette-tax initiative, records show.

The payment raised eyebrows in some circles, including among those who pushed for city's recent switch to an instant-runoff voting (IRV) system. But both Perata, a 2010 mayoral candidate, and De La Fuente, said the money was solely for work De La Fuente, a labor activist, will do for the ballot measure — and nothing more.

Oakland mayoral candidate and former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has continued to have a lucrative relationship with the powerful state prison guards' union since he left office in December.

State records show that the California Correctional Peace Officers Association's Truth in American Government, or TAG, Fund paid Perata Consulting $40,000 in the first quarter of 2009; the union's Issues Committee, a separate entity from its government fund, paid Perata Consulting $60,000 in the year's first half. Other records show that Perata Consulting is registered to Nick Perata, Don Perata's son, but communications consultant Jason Kinney said Tuesday that both father and son have an ownership interest in the firm.